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View Full Version : Question on Kalashtar and Dragonmarks (3ed Eberron)



forawesomssake
2010-08-25, 06:18 PM
Hello, i'm new to this forum. This is the second forum i've ever gone on, and the other one was a forum that me and my friends shared, but they're all busy at the moment. This is the first major forum i've ever gotten on to, so if i'm doing anything wrong just tell me in a constructively critical manner.

Anyways on to my question.
I'm well aware how Kalashtar inheritance works. The Kalashtar mother determines what Quori spirit the child well inherit, and if the mother isn't a Kalashtar, the child is a regular human. My question is this. If a Kalashtar male, married and made a baby with a human with dragonmark blood (Cannith in this case), would the baby still be eligible for inheriting a dragonmark? I've read alot of the Eberron books, and i've failed to see anything on this matter.

I ask because I'm making two characters that are half brother and sister. The father was a kalashtar from sarlona who had a baby with another kalashtar, but the mother was killed by agents of Riedra, and he fled with his daughter to Khorvaire, eventually he met a human girl, married her, and they had a child. She has lines to Cannith (although this is a matter of shame on her part).

Greenish
2010-08-25, 06:56 PM
I'm well aware how Kalashtar inheritance works. The Kalashtar mother determines what Quori spirit the child well inherit, and if the mother isn't a Kalashtar, the child is a regular human.No. Each kalashtar has a portion of a quori spirit, which can only be inherited by a child of the same sex. A male kalashtar's sons would be kalashtar, while his daughters would be humans.
My question is this. If a Kalashtar male, married and made a baby with a human with dragonmark blood (Cannith in this case), would the baby still be eligible for inheriting a dragonmark?Hmm, a tricky one. Dragonmarks (other than Death and Finding) can't cross racial border, but a kalashtar's non-kalashtar offspring is fully human, so I'd say it's possible for them to manifest the Dragonmark if they get it from the other side of their family.

[Edit]: Also, welcome to the playground.

avr
2010-08-25, 08:58 PM
By the letter of the rules, no. However, what those rules are designed to enforce is that you need to be a member of certain distinct bloodlines to inherit the mark. If your DM's OK with the background, they should be OK with the mark.

Greenish
2010-08-25, 09:00 PM
By the letter of the rules, no.Why not?

If he's a pure member of the appropriate race with ties to the appropriate bloodline, he qualifies.

You'll note that the character's mother is a member of House Cannith.

awesomessake
2010-08-25, 10:13 PM
Okay, sorry for delaying. Yes I am forawesomessake, but for the past hours i have been having chaos and despair trying to log back on to this forum. So i finally started a new thing with another one of my accounts.

I'm not sure how to quote yet, so here goes my best, thanks to anyone who gives me a clue.

quoting avr:
"No. Each kalashtar has a portion of a quori spirit, which can only be inherited by a child of the same sex. A male kalashtar's sons would be kalashtar, while his daughters would be humans."

Yeah i did some further reading. Thanks for that. So if the kalashtar male has a son its a kalashtar. Looks like i'm gonna have to change the kalashtar dad to a mom. No biggie.

quoting greenish:
"By the letter of the rules, no. However, what those rules are designed to enforce is that you need to be a member of certain distinct bloodlines to inherit the mark."

I can see where that's coming from, but what about Syberis marks? I have my ECS right here and it said that SM's are completely random and unpredictable.

Also thanks for the welcome!

Greenish
2010-08-25, 10:20 PM
I can see where that's coming from, but what about Syberis marks? I have my ECS right here and it said that SM's are completely random and unpredictable.
You got your quotes mixed. Anyway, any character that doesn't qualify for normal dragonmarks doesn't qualify for Mark of Siberys either, but that's not a problem because your character does qualify.

awesomessake
2010-08-25, 10:33 PM
Yeah, I just noticed the mixup. Sorry.

So anyways, I for one don't see why the son can't qualify for a mark. There was never any dragonmarks manifested on Sarlona, so if the half sarlonan/cannith heir is a true human with no other blood lines to mix with it, why can't the blood manifest a mark?

So in theory it could work.

bobspldbckwrds
2010-08-25, 10:34 PM
welcome!

and as i know it rules as worded it wouldn't work

but it seems like such an ebberron flavored idea that i don't know any ebberron dm that would disallow it.

awesomessake
2010-08-25, 10:56 PM
Quoting bobspldbckwrds
"and as i know it rules as worded it wouldn't work"

Where does it say that? I'm honestly curious. I can't find anything on it.
He has Cannith blood, and no other dragonhouse blood to corrupt it, and he's a human, be it his mom has an alien entity in the back of her head.

He's not even trying to manifest a mark, infact he hates house cannith. His family was once famous for their artifice genius, and there creative inventions. They once had good relations with Cannith until his grandmother married a cannith heir, and he allegedly stole some of their inventions for Canniths use. Since then, his family hated House Cannith with a passion that makes elves and green dragons look cuddly, and he is no different. Oddly enough his family never showed any hostility towards him or his father. Still they couldn't help but be put off by his mother and half sister... It seems like a very Eberronisc concept for him to manifest a mark, and try everything in his power to not become a member of Cannith.

Greenish
2010-08-25, 11:02 PM
and as i know it rules as worded it wouldn't workWhat rules? Why not?

Seriously, just saying that some unnamed unmentioned rule somehow prevents it isn't hugely useful.

[Edit]: That came up more snappy than intended. Sorry, I should go to bed already.

T.G. Oskar
2010-08-26, 12:47 AM
Technically, the intention of other races not having Dragonmarks is because of a surrounding special power that each race has in the setting.

For example: Giants have their ancient magic, which if they recovered, would make them unique. Consider that Warforged and elemental binding are traits of giant-discovered magic.

Goblinoids have the ancient Dhakaani artifacts. While they have no power or empire of their own, the fact that most if not all of the artifacts in Eberron of magical origin are Dhakaani artifacts make goblins have their own kind of magic.

Shifters and lycanthropes have their feral transformative abilities. Changelings have their transformative abilities as well. Warforged, of course, are basically living machinery and thus they don't have the same potential of unlocking dragonmarks.

This leaves the basic PHB races, which compared with the rest are kinda powerless (except for gnomes, but that's a big exception). Thus, they get the potential for dragonmarks based on their lack of special power; kind of a balancing point. You can figure this is the mechanical concept behind providing dragonmarks; thus, a Kalashtar with dragonmarks would be extremely rare, the stuff of legends. Especially if it has one of the established dragonmarks, since that would imply that dragonmarks are not impeded by unique racial traits (such as the Quori spirit bit embedded in the Kalashtar)

Which leads to the point. By RAW, no race other than the mentioned can qualify for dragonmarks, because the rules clearly state the restrictions on race. By RAI, the idea is that the Quori presence and the psychic potential of Kalashtar blocks the fundamental requirement to become a dragonmarked, much like a Kalashtar couldn't get Able Learner and suddenly become a Chameleon (a human-specific race, which Changelings can get because they are the offspring of both races). That would be the same for Shifters (they are human-descended, not specifically humans per se, but their lycanthrope ancestry blocks dragonmark manifestation) and Changelings (they have the same rules of breeding as Kalashtar do, but their ability to transform blocks the ability to manifest dragonmarks; otherwise, a Changeling could breed someone who could manifest any dragonmark and that would be even more pressing).

In theory, that means that someone with a host feat or having another kind of ancestry shouldn't have the mark, but since they can (say, someone with a bloodline for example), that means it's more of which fundamental power treats with you in Eberron.

Now, while the rules also forbid you from getting an Aberrant Dragonmark, I feel this would be the best course of action; an established dragonmark (quite probably like that of Cannith, the Mark of Making) but with a rare glow (a violet glow, the usual psychic glow of kalashtar) and perhaps a rarer power. But an actual dragonmark, true to the letter, would be impossible.

awesomessake
2010-08-26, 01:16 AM
@T.G. Oskar
There's alot in there.

But i think i get what you're trying to say. And that brings up an interesting idea, what if the mark manifested turns him into a kind of eldritch machine? I like the idea of a siberys mark that grants a Psilike ability instead of a spell like ability. Could totally turn the prophecy upside down!

Edit: I looked at the XPH and it talked about a psionic true creation....

Greenish
2010-08-26, 08:14 AM
Technically, the intention of other races not having Dragonmarks is because of a surrounding special power that each race has in the setting.

This leaves the basic PHB races, which compared with the rest are kinda powerless (except for gnomes, but that's a big exception). Thus, they get the potential for dragonmarks based on their lack of special power; kind of a balancing point. You can figure this is the mechanical concept behind providing dragonmarks; thus, a Kalashtar with dragonmarks would be extremely rare, the stuff of legends. Especially if it has one of the established dragonmarks, since that would imply that dragonmarks are not impeded by unique racial traits (such as the Quori spirit bit embedded in the Kalashtar)

Which leads to the point. By RAW, no race other than the mentioned can qualify for dragonmarks, because the rules clearly state the restrictions on race.But this is not about a kalashtar manifesting a dragonmark, this is about a human manifesting one.

You know, the PHB race, human? No quori spirits there, no sir.

awesomessake
2010-08-26, 02:12 PM
I for one, can't find any crunch or fluff in the books that denies a human with pure cannith blood in his line to manifest a mark, regardless of whether or not one of his parents were a kalashtar.

If anyone has a reference from any of the books or web supplements i'd look into it. Until then it sounds like a RAW.